On Campus

Studies are showing that the percentage of time that a student spends in the various areas of their lives really call us to evolve in what we’re doing.  A regular church-attending student spends about  1% of their life in church.  They spend about 25% of their life in school and then they spend the other 74% of their lives at home, jobs, sleeping etc. That’s led us to realize that we need to adjust the direction that we are heading; we need to change the areas that we put our time and effort into.  If we only have 1% of their life here, we need and should be involved in the other parts of their lives as well. And so we have continued to work on our campus ministry.
Our campus ministry has a couple of different things going on with it. One of the main things that we run are our missional hubs on all three major post-secondary campuses. On a regular basis we head into the schools and spend some time in this sphere of the student’s lives.  We create a space for students to come and hang out. These hubs are not an end in and of themselves. They don’t simply exist so that we can hang out or even because we believe that students will come flocking in and we are going to have opportunity to convert them to Christianity. What they do provide for us is an entry way into the schools and they give us some reason to be there and for us on a vision and philosophy level this ministry, is an opportunity for us to use the missional hub as a home base.  We’re able to move from the hub out into the schools where they provide a reason for us to wander around and meet people. It’s important for leaders that they understand that this provides them an opportunity to get right in there and talk to students who they haven’t met before or more importantly to wander around looking for those students who they already have relationship with; this provides a way to connect with the students that the leader knows. Our hope is to extend this ministry into high school campuses as well.  Often you’ll be wandering around campus and you’ll meet one person that you know and then five or six friends around them that you haven’t met yet. This is a great opportunity to get to know those students.

Studies are showing that the percentage of time that a student spends in the various areas of their lives really call us to evolve in what we’re doing.  A regular church-attending student spends about  1% of their life in church.  They spend about 25% of their life in school and then they spend the other 74% of their lives at home, jobs, sleeping etc. That’s led us to realize that we need to adjust the direction that we are heading; we need to change the areas that we put our time and effort into.  If we only have 1% of their life here, we need and should be involved in the other parts of their lives as well. And so we have continued to work on our campus ministry.

Our campus ministry has a couple of different things going on with it. One of the main things that we run are our missional hubs on post-secondary campuses. On a regular basis we head into the schools and spend some time in this sphere of the student’s lives.  We create a space for students to come and hang out. These hubs are not an end in and of themselves. They don’t simply exist so that we can hang out or even because we believe that students will come flocking in and we are going to have opportunity to convert them to Christianity. What they do provide for us is an opportunity for students who call theadvance home to create a space where they can connect and invite their friends who are maybe still figuring out how God connects to their lives.  Maybe some have expressed interest in church but are concerned about the distance or not knowing anyone.  The missional hub is our way of breaking down some of those barriers and creating reasons for college and university students to make the leap and hang out at church.  The missional hubs are also an entry way into the schools and they give us some reason to be there and for us on a vision and philosophy level this ministry, is an opportunity for us to use the missional hub as a home base.  We’re able to move from the hub out into the schools where they provide a reason for us to wander around and meet people.

So, here are some videos to help you find out where and when the missional hubs are happening on campus.

Carleton University Hub Kickoff from theadvance on Vimeo.

University of Ottawa Hub Kickoff from theadvance on Vimeo.